A tarantula's worst nightmare..

[thedude]

So i was looking through my collection today and decided to nab a few pics of some pepsis wasps that i had.. hope you guys enjoy.

males

females

Closeups

 

[Pro_bug_catcher]

Pompilids are among my favorite wasps, it's so neat/interesting that they paralyse their prey so the larvea can eat them alive. And it goes without saying that the Pepsis are the "queens" of the family!

 

[Stopdroproll]

Are the chances pretty slim for their victims?

 

[thedude]

Pretty much. The sting paralyzes the tarantula, then the female lays an egg on the tarantula. But i've heard of a few people who have saved the tarantulas before the wasp dragged it back to the burrow and nursed it back to health. About a year or so ago i remember reading a thread about someone who did that on here and the tarantula lived normal for awhile.

 

[Bugs In Cyberspace]

I saw two species of these buzzing around in Southern Arizona last summer while we were down for the ATS conference. I have dead specimens of both. One is similar to yours in the photo, but the other is blue and significantly larger (the largest US species I'm sure, but I've not looked up the name on it...or a thousand other bugs I saw down there...SO MUCH FUN!)

There is a clip of it at the 8m:10sec mark in the following video I shot:

http://www.youtube.com/user/bugsincyberspace?feature=mhw4#p/u/9/Xr07ZedrCBM

Peter

 

[GiantVinegaroon]

A tarantula hawk on a pin would probably be tarantula's dream come true!

:razz: